Monthly Archives:

May 2018

“What did you do when Gaza was dying?” An interview with Freedom Flotilla to Gaza crew member Zohar Chamberlain Regev, as the boats stop in Copenhagen for a few days. This is the tenth freedom flotilla to Gaza. None has gotten through the Israeli blockade.

Shahd Abusalama writes, “Being a Palestinian means that you wake up daily to more dehumanisation and oppression. Whenever I have a panic attack and a friend asks what started it, I realise they have no clue about how we experience violence. It’s ongoing. It’s constant.”

Protests have taken ahold of Haifa over the last few days as Palestinian citizens of Israel demonstrate against the actions of the Israeli military in Gaza. They were met by police who rights groups say used excessive force, including breaking the knee of one protester. “The first reaction of the police to stop the demonstration was to use violence,” Bashar Ali, 22, told Mondoweiss. “We can’t be surprised by this when at the same time Israeli soldiers are using deadly weapons on nonviolent demonstrations near Israel’s separation fence in Gaza.”

Organized Jewish groups have offered mealymouthed statements on the slaughter of more than 100 Gazans at the border; but the horrific events have shaken loose a segment of the Jewish community in outright criticism of Israel. Debra Shusahn of Peace Now, the non-Zionist group IfNotNow, and the foreign policy writer David Rothkopf are among those who call the killings immoral.

On May 18, Rabbi Jill Jacobs published an essay in the Washington Post suggesting that Steven Salaita is anti-Semitic. Here is the essay that he wrote in response that the Post refused to run. “Sloppy accusations of anti-Semitism betray visceral attachment to a country performing violence rather than empathy for those on its receiving end,” Salaita writes. “But it won’t deter us. Indeed, it serves as fuel to work even harder so that we might one day enjoy the same freedom as those who appoint themselves chaperones of our anger.”

Phil Weiss interviews Jim Zogby to mark the joint Mondoweiss-Arab American Institute publication of Zogby’s important book ‘Palestinians: The Invisible Victims’, a critical examination of the ideology and practice of Political Zionism. ‘Palestinians: The Invisible Victims’ will be available on June 1, but you can pre-order it now.

After Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour was imprisoned for a Facebook post that was described as incitement, Danielle Alma Ravitzki compiled social media posts by Israelis about committing acts of violence on Palestinians. None of these writers was ever tried or convicted.

The National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies recently passed a resolution in support of Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi. Fulano de Tal explains how this resolution came to pass, while weaving in the historical trajectory and current events in Gaza.

The NYT has no one to the left of Michelle Goldberg on Israel and meantime it publishes Shmuel Rosner saying that Israel’s shooting of civilians at the Gaza border was good for Palestinians, because the killings make Israel feel more secure. You really would have to publish a defense of suicide bombing to balance this. Rosner should just wear a sheet over his head and burn crosses.

Two leading figures on the American left, Rob Malley and Chris Hayes, cannot openly discuss the role of Israel in foreign policy-making, specifically Sheldon Adelson’s influence over Donald Trump’s historic and tragic decision to scrap the Iran deal, a landmark of international diplomacy.

According to the Palestinian Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip, since the Great Return March protests started on March 30th:
– Israeli soldiers have killed 112 Palestinians, and injured 13,190
– 13 Palestinian children have been killed and 2,096 have been injured
– 502 Palestinians were shot in the head and neck.
– 283 Palestinians were shot in the chest and back.
– 225 Palestinians were shot in the abdomen and pelvis.
– 1,117 Palestinians suffered various cuts and bruises to several parts of their bodies.
– 27 of the wounded Palestinians suffered amputations of their legs, one of his arm, and four others had fingers severed by Israeli fire.

On Sunday, Mohammad Tamimi, 15, was thrown into the back of an unmarked car by undercover Israeli agents dressed as Arabs in the occupied village of Nabi Saleh and detained until the end of the night. Mohammad is recovering from a life-threatening injury after being shot in the head by Israeli forces five months ago.

San Francisco State University Professor Rabab Abdulhadi is fighting off yet another attack by the Lawfare Project, the Zionist group that maliciously sued her last year. Her attorneys write: “Lawfare’s stunt has exposed the fundamental weakness in Zionist arguments that advocacy for Palestinian freedom is equal to discrimination against Jewish students. The lawsuit lays bare that Israel advocates prefer to silence and bully campus critics of Israel rather than confront the policy issues raised by Israel’s denial of freedom and equality to Palestinians.”

Many are puzzled why Gaza citizens would risk death by confronting the Israeli military at the borderline. Tom Helman, Joshua Grossman, and Peter Klutz-Chamberlin report on a recent meeting with Palestinian youth from Gaza that helps make the answer to this question clear.

The United Nations highest human rights body voted Friday for an independent investigation into human rights violations in “the military assaults on the large-scale civilian protests that began on 30 March 2018,” carried out by Israeli in Gaza.

Statement by civil society organizations in Israel: “In light of recent barbaric and inhumane military actions carried out against unarmed protesting Palestinian civilians in Gaza by Israeli forces protests have erupted all over the world and in Israel in solidarity with Gaza and its victims. Amongst the many hotspots, Haifa experienced the highest number of Police brutality cases and arrests of activists and high school students. Demonstrators have been gathering daily to peacefully express their right to protest and stand by the “March of Return” victims. Police have escalated their intervention and use of violence against protesters each day culminating in the mass arrests and brutality witnessed on Friday night.”

Salena Tramel writes from Mali: “As West African Muslims celebrate the arrival of their holy month through fasting and prayer, they do so holding up Palestinians. They match that with action in the fight against land and water grabs, not only in the Sahel but also around the world.”

Sandra Tamari joined a delegation of Palestinian human rights defenders to attend the opening of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, an ambitious project to give witness to formerly enslaved Black people terrorized by lynching in the South. “Truth-telling about the past is a requirement to finding a path to justice,” Tamari writes. “The Palestinian struggle for freedom, equality and justice is interlocked with other freedom movements in this country and around the globe. We celebrate the National Memorial for Peace and Justice because it brings the the truth-telling within it brings the U.S. one step closer towards finally, truly abolishing slavery and lynching. And we celebrate it because it brings Palestinians closer to our own freedom.”

Nada Elia writes, “Protests, planned and spontaneous, play a major role in that they show popular support for the plight of the Palestinians, but we cannot just protest, then go home. Just as Al Nakba is ongoing, so our outrage must be sustained, long-term. We must go beyond the anger of the moment, the chants and slogans and pumping fists in the air, to focus on the slow, less immediately gratifying, more tedious work of strengthening the foundation of our better future.”

Marc Ellis looks at what comes next after the Great March of return and the Gaza massacre: “In Gaza, the end will continue. As it has for decades. But not only for Palestinians. For Jews within Israel and Jews outside Israel, the historical judgment is certain. Let’s be honest. And realize that the Jewish approach to Israel and the Palestinians, improving modestly over the years but severely compromised, will continue to be interrogated by the suffering of Palestinian populations in Gaza and elsewhere in Palestine. Palestinians are trapped. Jews are too.”

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